The People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine has released a preliminary report condemning Australian universities for restricting academic freedom, free speech, and the right to peaceful protest regarding Palestine.
The preliminary report outlines three preliminary findings from across over 150 submissions. Australian universities have: (1) restricted the free speech and academic freedom of staff and students on the question of Palestine, (2) targeted students and staff who express support for Palestine for surveillance and discipline, and (3) have both used existing policies and devised new policies in an opaque way to target and censor students and staff expressing support for Palestine.
The report notes that a “large number of submissions were made [in confidence]”, attributable to a “pervasive climate of fear on [campuses] of repercussions for speaking out about Palestine”.
The report specified submissions detailing cancelled events on campus related to Palestine as “[appearing] to be motivated by a desire to restrict legitimate speech on the question of Palestine.” It directly noted the cancellation of a screening of the Palestinian documentary No Other Land at Curtin University, as well as the cancellation of a talk by Sam Hamdi, hosted by the Muslim Students’ Association at the University of Western Australia.
The report referenced the use of lecture recording to monitor university staff, as well as surveillance of students and student clubs through “Wi-Fi tracking technology”. It specifically noted the submission by Students for Palestine (SFP) at USyd who submitted an Information Access Request (GIPA) that a“revealed a backlog of evidence of near-daily surveillance of the USYD SFP social media posts, daily updates on Instagram Stories and even level of engagement from supporters in comments of our social media.” The report called the methods “police state tactics” and “Orwellian”.
It also notes the prominence of USyd’s repressive Campus Access Policy in several submissions, including that made by the USyd Students’ Representative Council (SRC).
Senator Mehreen Faruqi said that “This preliminary report confirms what many students and staff already know- universities have trampled over the values of free speech and academic freedom in their cowardly attempts to shut down support for a free Palestine.
“Academic freedom means nothing if it doesn’t extend to the most urgent moral issues of our time. The universities that have punished students and staff for standing with Palestine are revealing themselves not as spaces of free inquiry, but as instruments of political censorship,” Farqui said. She further called the report “disturbing reading, showing that universities are turning into ideological battlegrounds where only state-sanctioned narratives are allowed to survive”.
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) President Nasser Mashni also called the report “harrowing” and “textbook anti-Palestinian racism”. He said that “Universities have also weaponised antisemitism and twisted the concept of psycho-social safety to suppress Palestinian voices and learning about Palestine, deliberately creating a climate of fear on campus for those who oppose institutional complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide.
“The experiences documented by this report, and the hearings and recommendations to come, must mark a turning point for universities. They must defend civil liberties, sever their ties to genocidal Israel, and support Palestinian justice.”
The preliminary report reiterated its aims “to give voice to those whose viewpoints have been vindicated, yet subject to suppression in a climate of fear intentionally created by university administrations in tandem with those justifying Israel’s actions.”
The Inquiry received submissions from both staff and students of over 20 Australian universities. It found that the “findings from this preliminary assessment are sufficient to raise serious concerns about the state of free speech rights and academic freedom.” It will be followed by a thorough assessment of all submissions and the release of a final report.
The People’s Inquiry is hosting public hearings as an opportunity for university staff and students to share experiences, as well as for the Inquiry Panel to gain further information. Registration can be found here.
